The Lil Big Apartment

Lil and Big met in Chinatown, NYC 10 months ago, fell in love over skateboards and froyo, and will be moving in together at the end of August 2016!

We went back to Juicy Spot Cafe on our 6 month anniversary and ordered the same frozen yogurt Big bought for me the first day we met, because that’s how we roll (pun intended)

After months of [re]searching for apartments on websites such as Streeteasy.com, Renthop, and Craigslist, and 1 week of viewings, we decided to go with a 2-bedroom 1 bath unit in Uptown Manhattan. Here’s why:

Location

I get to walk to work, which saves me time and money as I pay off student loan debt

Safety was a priority for Big since I work the occasional late shift, so he was adamant that we stay close to the hospital

Big can get to work in 30 min with the express train around the corner

Value

Manhattan 2 bedrooms average $4908/month or $67/square foot (check out this Rental Report for June 2016 prices)

Lil Big Apt is $2406/month and $35/square foot!

We plan to make the spare bedroom available to friends, family, and other guests

Big crunched some numbers and found that we would only need to have 40% guest occupancy to break even

The floor plan of our 840sq ft top floor apartmentBig admiring our large living room and beautiful hardwood floorsOur biggest project to come: making this kitchen less of an eyesore2nd biggest project: bathroom beautificationGuest bedroom!Master bedroom!

Our apartment hunt for the most updated and spacious apartment for the best price inspired us to seek other ways to save, which eventually spawned this blog. Stay tuned to see how we make this apartment ours while keeping it budget- and rental-friendly.

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Meet Big & Lil

Hello and welcome!
We are Big and Lil, an accountant and a physician assistant, respectively. Together, we've paid off $100k in student loans in less than 2 years while living in NYC and want to empower others with our budgeting and frugal lifestyle tips.
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